Two Men Claim Governor's Post in Split Mexican State

Two men took the oath of office Thursday to be governor of deeply
divided southern state of Chiapas, both promising a new constitution and
electoral reform.

Eduardo Robledo, the ruling party candidate and official winner of the
Aug. 21 election, was inaugurated during a special legislative session at
the modernistic City Theater with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo in
attendance.

Amada Avendano, who claims the election was stolen from him by vote
fraud, was installed at the main plaza several blocks away, where 3,000
protesters gathered in front of the statehouse to witness a Mayan ceremony
of incense and chanting in the unrelenting sun.

Both events were peaceful. Demonstrators who had marched from all over
the state to protest Robledo's inauguration did not attempt to confront the
tight security surrounding the theater. Police guarding the statehouse
watched the plaza ceremony indifferently and protesters did not disturb
their barricades.

However, tensions remain high as Mexicans wait to find out whether the
Zapatista National Liberation Army will carry out its threat to break its
uneasy truce with the government once Robledo takes office. The rebels, who
briefly took control of four county seats last New Year's Day, have said
that Avendano will be recognized as governor in any territory they
control.

The inauguration day was the first measure of how Zedillo's week-old
administration would respond to both the rebels and to nonviolent
protests.

"My presence in Chiapas is for peace," Zedillo said in a speech. "I come
to Chiapas to assume the demands of those who live in conditions of misery
that undermine the lives and dignity of thousands of men and women,
especially in Indian communities."

He repeated orders to the Mexican armed forces to continue the
cease-fire in effect since mid-January and he called for negotiation and
dialogue, without mentioning the Zapatistas by name.

Avendano, a crusading newspaper publisher who was the candidate of the
Democratic Revolutionary Party, made clear his parallel government will be
a peaceful protest that will not include taking over any government
buildings. In other states, opposition parties have forced the governor's
resignation by blockading government buildings, preventing the conduct of
state business.

"We lack the minimum infrastructure to be able to function, because the
government has appropriated the goods and real estate that belong to us,
the people," Avendano said as supporters chanted, "The people voted, Amado
won."

"It will take a lot of work for us to recover peacefully that to which
we have a right," he said. "We are going to make democracy with our own
hands."

He proposed a constitutional convention with representatives from each
county in the state and an electoral reform law.

During his inauguration speech, Robledo renewed his offer to resign if
that would convince the Zapatistas to lay down their arms.

He offered a 12-point government program that includes a new
constitution with electoral reform, which will be written by the state
legislature. He also proposed an Indian rights law and the creation of
plebiscites and referendums, which so far do not exist in Mexico.

The officially elected governor also came down strongly in favor of law
and order, a growing demand in a state that many citizens claim has become
ungovernable. Since the uprising, increasing numbers of peasant groups have
invaded plantations, demanding that the government confiscate the land and
turn it over to them, a process known in Mexico as "redistribution."

Besides a judicial reform, Robledo offered a new agrarian law, "to
redistribute that (land) which can be redistributed, make productive what
has been redistributed and to respect that which cannot be
redistributed."